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Born as a man Sri Rama cultivated and acquired several good qualities by virtue of which he became immortal. Tapasya means practising disciplined living, having control on words and deeds ‘Kaya, Vacha, Manasa’. Rama cultivated all good qualities that are required of a highly cultured man by sheer tapasya. He controlled his ego, ire etc., by tapasya. He always spoke the truth. He never differentiated between the upper and lower castes and the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.
People may say that had he not been a God or Vishnu’s Avathara he would not have attained that. But in our lifetime we have seen a man who by his words and actions elevated himself to become a Mahatma. Even his enemies could not deny him the stature of the man of the millennium i.e., Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Except that Sri Rama was a Kshatria and a warrior, in every other respect Gandhi was his replica.
We cannot draw comparison between Sri Rama and Mahatma Gandhi. Rama was a born King. He had all the privileges of a Royal progeny. He had very good education under the tutelage of Sage Vasishta and Sage Vishwamitra. But he had to fight a war with Ravana, which resulted in a lot of bloodshed.
Whereas Gandhi was born an ordinary man; by his words and deeds he conquered the hearts of millions of people not only in India but also abroad. He waged a war of Ahimsa and non-cooperation against the Britishers, and made them leave India without much bloodshed.
We cannot fathom the depth of great people who have by their sheer penance and tapasya acquired super human powers like Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and Gandhi. Therefore, we cannot comment on them.
Mathoor Krishnamurty,
Director,
Bhavan’s Bangalore Kendra
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